Police use pepper spray during Portland protest
PORTLAND, Ore. – Police and protesters clashed Saturday afternoon during a march in Northeast Portland.
Police said officers arrested one protester and used pepper spray on several others when they confronted officers with wooden shields.
A group called Portland Action Lab organized the march called "Solidarity Against Austerity." It included some members of Occupy Portland, and several other groups.
The march started at 2 p.m. at Holladay Park in Northeast Portland.
Police used pepper spray on marchers near the Lloyd Center at Northeast 15th and Halsey.
"People had goggles, they didn’t have wooden sticks or anything like that," said 15-year-old protester Quetzal Brock. "There were wooden banners right in front just to protect from the police."
Brock said he was pepper sprayed by police.
"I didn't think it would happen to me, especially at this age," said Brock.
Police said they attempted to contact event organizers to find out if the event would be peaceful, but no one with Portland Action Lab responded.
The marchers moved south from there on Northeast 15th Avenue.
KATU's Lincoln Graves contributed to this story.
Video by Alex Milan Tracy (WARNING: Profanity)
They hate freedom of speech and the right to assemble in a police state.
Something I have not seen pointed out in the thread yet...IF they are just planning a peaceful protest, then WHY are there the guys with facepaint and covering their faces with bandana and face masks?
Just morons getting together to protest for the sake of protest.
I'm not sure what the protest was about, and I don't really care. The pictures of police in full riot gear, tear gass, billy clubs, against marching citizens speak volumes.
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We are a police state. Period.
Wow we have become such babies in the States we have it so good and still we whine and complain. Boo hoo I did not get that BMW I wanted. Why didn't the gov. pay for it......
seriously folks... Wouldn't you like to be a pepper too?
Austerity? The ess is REALLY gonna hit the fan when President Romney issues an EO and does away with the USF and cuts off your Obamaphone.
 @Sid Vishess Sid... you aren't living in that delusional "Romney-could-still-win-land" too, are you?
 @TruthinAdverts Is that anything like the mythical "Obama-is-great-for Amerika" land?
"I didn't think it would happen to me, especially at this age," said Brock." Â Here is a clue for you Brock. Â If you are going to act like an idiot and hang out with idiots then you shouldn't be supprized when you get treated like one.
 @FBrumfield You have the right to peacefully protest. It appeared that in this video evidence that the police were the instigators hitting first.Â
 @TheSkyIsFalling  @FBrumfield I'm confident that what we are seeing is select scenes from the event. What I am seeing is a bunch of Portland hipsters and malcontents blowing off a little steam, and the police trying to contain the nonsense.
From what I saw in this video, it appears that the police were acting appropriately in holding their line. But that's just from watching this video on this article.
Protesters need better arms to protect themselves from the thugs in the police dept. Here's one of the things we used to do in the 60's. A bunch of you fill your pockets with cheap marbles. When the cops come for you just throw the marbles on the pavement and watch the cops fall and bust there noggins. Low tech but works very nicely.
@Blindman Good one (marbles)Â It is about time that the police state war on the citizens stops being one sided.
 @Blindman Blindman, we always knew you'd lost your marbles... now we know how
@Blindman No need to arm yourself against the police if you protest PEACEFULLY. If you need wooden sign as shields, you're not planning for a peaceful protest.
what a bunch of low life losers. take a bath and stop trying to make front page, get a good law suit, and fatten up your resume with bragging rights. the protesters should be sued civily by the city of portland to compensate the city/citizens for the cost to baby sit these low lifes.Â
The 60's are long over, the real influence is in lobbying, not trying to relive hippie moments from the past. And don't get me started on the loser "activists" who shut down public meetings where minorities are trying to have dialog with their elected leaders on important topics.Â
@Citizen#3457899654 Most people cannot afford huge BRIBES, ehem' lobbying, so that effectively leaves 99% of the people out of the process.
Just Occupy loons. From their website:
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"We emerged from Occupy Portlandâs N17: Occupy the Banks, part of an Occupy Wall Street national day of action. Inspired by the success of that action, we chose to continue working together as the Action Lab within the Occupy Portland movement. "
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Well, the good news is that it doesn't appear they raped or murdered anyone this time. But the police were well-advised to be ready for violence given who they were.
 @LockesChild You appear to have confused the Occupy movement with the Boogeyman.
 @SutekhÂ
Rape in New Haven
http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/Woman-Raped-at-Occupy-New-Haven-Cops-142627056.html?dr
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Rape in Philly
http://articles.philly.com/2011-11-13/news/30394158_1_tent-camp-authorities
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Rapes in Baltimore, Cleveland, Dallas and New York
http://thefeministwire.com/2011/11/occupy-rape-culture/
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Murders, drug overdoses, and suicides in Salt Lake City, Oakland and Portland:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/12/occupy-wall-street-deaths_n_1089845.html
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And, of course, domestic terrorism as some Occupy dirtbags conspire to blow up a bridge in Ohio:
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http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/05/01/11485641-5-anarchists-nabbed-in-plot-to-blow-up-ohio-bridge?lite
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Yeah, they are just modern-day Minutemen aren't they...
Nice to see KOMO and KATU partnering up to spread sensationalism today. What was the protest about? Who cares, there was pepper spray and clashes with police! Local weather and traffic to follow after the commercial break.Â
@caphillkid The police state war on the citizenry will not be televised.
Well if the group didn't respond as to whether it was going to be nonviolent or not, I can understand the police arming themselves more, and they usually don't use pepper spray for no reason. (Note 'usually.')
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The officers were also having wooden shields waved at them, there was probably no good way to tell whether the group was armed or not.
 @WAbornnraised Apparently you've missed the part of the constitution that guarantees the right of the people to assemble; it's called the first amendment. They are under no obligation to inform the police ahead of time whether their assembly will be peaceful or not. As a matter of course, the police should assume so until proven otherwise. The very fact that they showed up in full riot gear off the bat escalates the situation automatically.
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Don't misunderstand me, I do not absolve the protestors of their responsibilities at all. However, the mere fact that they had "wooden shields", a defensive tool, is not proof enough that the police needed to escalate automatically to full riot control mode. The protestors were prepared to defend themselves in a fight, and rather than let them protest and hold the riot gear on standby, the police chose to anti up, show up in full gear, and aggravate the situation.
 @mhungry "ante"
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." Lining up with wooden shields does not sound very peaceful to me.
@JustaSurfer I am proud of these fine Americans standing up to the police state terrorists.
@SilverGryphon.. And yet the police showed up in full riot gear and shields. But then again all the protestors could show up fully bearing arms. Which would be totally constitutional. It would be however if they were using them violentlyat first or not that would matter. Fact is you have the right to defend yourself anywhere and to have the tools to do that. This so called wooden shield is normally considered a defensive device by nature. Though it can be used aggressively though. But clearly the two police officers at the 14 and 15 second mark clearly committed assault. The guy did not strike at them. All he did was yelling for sure but as a police officer that is not justification for striking first. Even if the gut had struck first prior to the beginning of the video too much time had went by for there to be a retalitory act by an officer. True though they could arrest him if that was the case but they did not. Of course it could always be childlike justified in some way. So going by your saying "Lining up with wooden shields does not sound very peaceful to me." Is this not exactly what the police did as well showing up in full riot gear and riot shields? So would that not mean by your analogy it would be correct to say then that both planned to be violent????
 @WAbornnraised You have to give some respect to police where it's due... I wouldn't want their job for all the money in the world. I really mean that. Things are going to continue to get uglier for them. (sad)
I'm waiting for Andrew to chime in on this one and say something like "The police are so corrupt!! They use pepper spray to season their FOOD!!" (Or something like that.)
 @Wolfen I am curious as to where young Andrew has gone.... Maybe jack boot got em'!
@Wolfen I use it on omlettes.
Those who make non-violent revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable. JFK
Just natural intuition. Fight violence with a higher level of violence. Thats all the police are doing is helping to escalate the level of violence.
Eugene sends up their best. Hate to tell these people that it already has been done. Now we own the corporations, they will too... :-)
 @Grumpa Eugene wannabe hippies.... druggies, eco terrorists and protestors without a clue. yikes.
It's sad because most of these protesters have no idea about what they're protesting. In addition the numbers of protestors are going to grow after elections are over with. Once elections are finished and some time goes by things will continue to unravel economically. There's too much debt pertaining to war(s), increased size of government and natural disasters. Congress and their inaction has a price and that price includes 85% of our combined population suffering financially. (my opinion)
 @Funky-Munky All this bickering about whether it should be Obama or Romney isn't going to help either. Either way, the losing side is going to be butt hurt about it, and neither of these men are going to do a d@mn thing good for the "average" American. Goldman Sachs Execs however are kicking back in their mansions watching this election in amusement. They pretty much own BOTH candidates, and don't really care WHO wins.
 @Wolfen Interestingly, Wall Street gave overwhelming to Obama over McCain in 2008. Now they are giving overwhelmingly to Romney in 2012. I think they hedge their bets.Â
 @Wolfen I converse sometimes with a guy in Portland thru the Katu news site and we agree poo is going to hit the fan regardless of the victor. We all lose in the long run. Too many years of bad politics, non-working Congress and war(s) on credit plus throw in natural disasters and you get the complete picture. Ugh! :(